In memory of Gordon Charles Green

Gordon Charles Green

1921-2011

Gordon was born in Bothell on November 26, 1921, and died from metastatic prostate cancer on November 3, 2011, in San Antonio, Texas, at the age of 89. His parents were early Bothell residents, Charles Henry Green and Sarah Elizabeth Simonds Green. Gordon attended Bothell schools through 9th grade, then went to Roosevelt High School in Seattle, where he graduated in 1940. He enrolled at the University of Washington and completed two years before joining the Army Air Corps early in World War II. During training, he contracted rheumatic fever and received a medical discharge. He completed his college education at UCLA. Subsequently he earned M.A. (in Drama) and Ph.D. (in Communications) degrees from the University of Southern California. He was especially proud of his Master's thesis, “An Analysis of The Importance of Being Earnest as a Satire on Victorian Conventions,” which has been consulted frequently by students and scholars in the years since its 1950 completion.

Among his many accomplishments was dramatic training in New York directed by Erwin Piscator with classmates such as Marlon Brando and Elaine Stritch. He was later a valued member of two theater companies in Houston, Texas. A talented but unpublished playwright, he spent the majority of his professional life as a college professor of English and drama, mostly in Los Angeles (1964-1983). He also taught in Houston, Kirkland, Lewiston (Idaho), and New Orleans.

In addition to his passion for drama, Gordon enjoyed opera and classical music. His greatest enthusiasm was for traveling and seeing other parts of the world. He often visited Europe and also the family of his UCLA roommate in Guatemala. He loved visiting historic churches and art museums.

After his retirement as a full professor at Los Angles City College in 1983, he moved several times, usually to senior communities, first in San Diego, then Las Vegas, Bothell, Kirkland, Pompano Beach (Florida), Bothell again, San Antonio, back to San Diego for one year, and then the final five months of his life once again in San Antonio. He was restless, ever searching for the perfect place. In early September, he made his final trip to Bothell to be honored at the University of Washington Bothell groundbreaking ceremony for the Sarah Simonds Green Conservatory. This educational facility is to be built with his money in memory of his mother and her love of plants.

Gordon never married and he had no children. His only sibling, his brother Ron, died in 2010. Gordon is survived by his sister-in-law, Eleanor Green in Kirkland, and her children, his niece and nephews, Ron Green, Jr. in Bothell, Jan Hunter in San Diego, and Darrell Green in Redmond. He is also survived by his first cousin, Marjorie Olmsted in Mountlake Terrace, and her children David Olmsted in Edmonds, Paul Olmsted in Woodinville, Jan Fitzpatrick in Seattle, and Richard Olmsted in Seattle. All of them loved him and miss him very much. At a recent family gathering, he was remembered especially for his enthusiasm, his energy, his appreciation for natural beauty and the arts, his strong sense of gratitude, his keen intellect, and his hearty laugh.